Flint Raises $5.1 Mn Seed Funding From Sequoia, Coinbase Ventures

SUMMARY

Investment Round led VC firms like Sequoia, GFC, Coinbase Ventures and individual investors including CRED’s Kunal Shah, Polygon’s Sandeep Naliwal and Comedian Tanmay Bhat

Funding to be used for ramping up hiring and strengthening legal and risk functions as well as to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory norms.

Despite over 80% of the startups in the cryptocurrency segment still bootstrapped, it received over $247 Mn in VC funding in 2021.

Bengaluru-based Crypto startup, Flint, has raised $5.1 Mn in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital India, GFC and a clutch of other investors.

The funding round also saw participation by a slew of other VC firms and individual investors like Coinbase Ventures, Hashed, IOSG, Better Capital, CRED’s Kunal Shah, Polygon’s Sandeep Naliwal, Snapdeal’s Rohit Bansal, standup comedian Tanmany Bhat among others.

Taking to Twitter, Flint cofounder Anshu Agarwal thanked the investors, adding that, ”We are proud to be playing a small role in the larger mission of changing this world day by day, by making crypto accessible to the masses.”

The investment will be used by the startup to ramp up hiring across engineering, design and product functions. The funding will also be used to fine tune the product offering line, strengthen legal and risk functions as well as to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory norms.

Flint was founded in 2021 by ex-product managers at CRED, Anshu Agrawal and Akshit Bordia. The startup is a passive crypto investment player offering returns of up to 13% a year on deposited funds without any lock-in period.

Passive crypto investment player Flint is offering a simple diversification to crypto, with returns of up to 13 per cent a year without any lock-in period. Flint claims that it only deals with stable cryptocurrencies like USDT and USDC that are free from fluctuations.

The startup targets users in the age group of 25-40 looking for diversification and most of their users reportedly come from Tier-1 cities with income upwards of INR 12 Lakhs per annum.

An Inc42 report notes that more than 350 blockchain startups were operational in the country in 2021 with the cryptocurrency segment receiving the highest funding last year (to date). Despite over 80% of the startups still being bootstrapped, the sector received over $247 Mn in VC funding in 2021.

Even as unclear government policies turned the tide against cryptocurrency exchanges, India’s crypto market grew 641% from July 2020 to June 2021, helping turn the region into world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets. Centre has been mulling a proposed Bill that seeks to ban “all private cryptocurrencies.”

This comes barely days after cryptocurrency staking management platform, Stader Labs, raised $12.5 Mn in a funding round led by Three Arrows Capital, valuing it at $450 Mn. Days ago, Sahicoin also bagged seed funding for its social media platform for crypto users.

This comes on the heels of a great year for the crypto startups in 2021. The segment churned out two unicorns last year. In August of 2021, CoinDCX closed a $90 Mn Series C funding round, led by B Capital Group, valuing it at $1.1 Bn. Less than two months later, Bengaluru-based CoinSwitch Kuber also raised $260 Mn in Series C funding round led by a16z, valuing it at $1.9 Bn.

The enthusiastic response of investors towards Flint shows the positive outlook of the segment. With more and more investments flowing in, the cryptocurrency market is all set for a revolution, but, will regulatory bodies play spoilsport? Only time will tell.